Magic

It has been some time since I wrote anything, here or otherwise.  But my niece recently read the first 6+ chapters of my book and loved it.  Nothing like praise to motivate you to write.  But I remember leaving the Oak Wand because my inspiration had packed it's bags and headed to Bermuda.  So, to get back into it, I started at the beginning and reread the entire thing.  This ended at a sentence where I didn't know quite where to go.

I must thank JK Rowling because Harry Potter has afforded me much inspiration.  The Oak Wand is NOT like Harry Potter but a few of the situations are similar enough that how JK writes them, has helped me.  And so it was again.  I started with only a sentence at a time coming to me.  But they kept coming and coming and coming for 5 more pages.  I knew what the event was that would happen (sorry, no spoilers) and how it would be resolved-ish but I just didn't know how.  Now I do.

Sometimes when I write, I don't feel like this is really my story.  I'm merely transcribing the story someone else has is telling me.  I am surprised at how scenes unfold, at the reactions of the characters.  Is it because I'm a fabulous writer?  Or maybe I'm just suffering from fortunate inspiration.

This is the Novel Mage saying, *POOF*

Days go by

Wow, it seems like forever since I posted last.  Oh, look it has been!  No posts in July at all.  Much too busy lately with school and work and family and laziness to write.  I've also lost some of the fire I had before.  This saddens me but I have NOT needed one more thing to stress about.

The good news though is that I have started writing again.  I'm taking a story I wrote in high school, then rewrote 5 or so years ago and now rewriting it again.  It never ceases to amaze me how much my writing has improved.  As soon as I sat down, with this project in mind, and started reading the story, I couldn't believe how much 'telling' I did.  I didn't 'show' very much at all.  My dialogue was little and ....well, blah.  Then I remembered that this copy was still quite improved over the original.  EEK!  Luckily, I believe my sister is the only one with an original and it isn't a soft copy she can circulate easily.

Still, in my quest to be published is still moving forward.  Since I originally wrote this story in 3 parts, and now that I'm rewriting (page 1 is now pages 1-3), my plan is to release it in 3 parts.  So if all goes well, you can look for "Mysterious Prince Part I" by Christmas as an ebook. 

This is the Novel Mage saying, *POOF*

Curbed Enthusiasm

I spent the two weeks off from school doing very little writing.  Why?  I had a great opportunity to write in the evenings that were homework free.  But I didn't.  Well, first I had several home improvement/basement finishing jobs that needed to be done.  Alas, they took priority.  Second, I actually finished compiling my poetry book.  I just need to actually do the hard thing of putting up for publishing somewhere.  And third, I really kind of enjoyed NOT being on a computer every night. 

Thus, my writing has not progressed.  But don't worry.  It hasn't been forgotten.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Booking it!

So I haven't really written much lately.  I blame the end of the semester and a slight desire to NOT be on the computer after work in rebellion.  But at the prompting of several people at LTUE and a neighbor or two, I'm compiling my book of poetry.  I've decided that a big book of poetry could be overkill (and self-publishing makes it expensive).  The biggest problem with that is I have to pick and choose what to include.  Trying to make a 50-ish page poetry book when you have roughly 129 poems and you can only fit one per page in most cases is tough.  What to put in?  Poetry comes from the soul and in many cases (for me) it holds a personal memory or instance with it.  Which memories do I share?  Which shouldn't I share?

I see the attraction to fiction.  Truth is veiled in a story accepted as not true.  A lot of my poetry is truth colored as I felt it.  Rejecting my story is one thing, but having your soul and life rejected.... well I better start working on that thick skin the LTUE authors recommended.  At my current pace, it will be eBook ready in about a week.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Make a break for it

The semester is drawing to a close and I will get a one week break between semesters.  I just need to plow through the next two weeks and I will be free to write, when I'm not working on the basement.  I started chapter 7 and decided that I just needed to get stuff down on the page and not worry so much about whether I'm using "was" because it slowed me down.  I'm a story-teller.  Which is different from a story show-er.  (Yes, I put a hyphen because otherwise it's 'story shower' and that is just silly).  My kids like that I can tell stories, but readers like you to show them.  So hopefully on my one week break, my goal is to pound out another chapter.  That will put me close to half way done. 

April is script-frenzy too.  http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/  I had every intention of doing it this year but with finals and a basement nearing completion, I think I'll have to post-pone.  But if you are an aspiring script writer, by all means join!

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Do you write and drive?

It's illegal to text and drive but can I write in my head and drive at the same time safely?  Ponderous.

Anyway, I came to a crux on Sunday.  It's one of those moments in story-telling where your decision could affect the outcome of the whole story.  It's the "Death" decision.  Many writers at LTUE agreed that killing someone is a great way to keep interest.  Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Professor Lupin.  They all needed to die to force Harry to stand on his own and become a man.  But even in the end, Harry doesn't cast the death spell on Voldemort. 

My crux came because I'd had this great idea to have my main character, Kyle, discover a spell.  It's a cool spell.  But it had the potential of making him invincible.  DOH!  And then it came.  The death decision.  If you mean to shoot and kill someone, there is guilt but there should also be justification.  But if the gun goes off unintentionally and someone dies, can you ever touch a gun again?  But could I do that?

So I turned to my  lovely wife and asked for help.  She guided me wisely as she always does. It took me to new depths and created a more complex character.  It reminds me of the movie "Stranger than Fiction".  I'm not really a big Will Ferrell fan but that was a great movie.  And it taught me same thing my wife did, sometimes they don't have to die to make the story great.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*